Donald Trump shook up America. Now it's the world's turn. The President-elect's decision to flout 40 years of diplomatic convention and take a call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen last week suggested he may be just as disrespectful of protocol on the world stage as at home. The call produced days of speculation about how the President-elect's impulsive style will reverberate around the globe and whether it could threaten the architecture of international relations. There are many global traditions and arrangements that he could target, though each could carry a geopolitical or diplomatic price -- one reason even presidents who...

Amid the media mourning and eulogizing of Fidel Castro, on Monday, the network morning shows turned to worrying about the impact President-elect Donald Trump would have on American/Cuban relations, declaring the opening of diplomatic relations with the authoritarian regime to be the â€ścenterpieceâ€ť of President Obamaâ€™s â€ślegacy.â€ť On NBCâ€™s Today, correspondent Andrea Mitchell â€“ who on Sunday fondly reminisced over her past meetings with Castro â€“ proclaimed: â€śThe White House sees Obamaâ€™s opening to Cuban as the centerpiece of his legacy. Direct commercial flights starting this week, postal service with the U.S., credit cards and banking, internet service. Cracks in...

The Wall Street Journal recently posted that Mitt Romney is emerging as the leading candidate to be Secretary of State in the Trump administration. Obviously we all know Romney is the poster child for GOPe, and that for whatever reason he threw his debates against Obama in 2012. Personally, I would like to see him lead a task force to eliminate vast numbers of Federal regulations, but it is not up to me. In this thread I am concerned with Foreign Policy and nothing else. Where can we expect Romney to differ from what we expect from President Trump on...

Dear President-Elect Trump: Congratulations on a winning a hard-fought campaign. I haven’t always been your biggest fan (I wasn’t your opponent’s either) but you will soon enter the Oval Office facing more diverse security challenges, in more corners of the globe, than perhaps any of your predecessors. You’ll need help. The world you’re about to encounter as our commander-in-chief is more dangerous and discombobulated than any new president has encountered in many decades. Your bumbling predecessor hasn’t exactly done you many favors either. Let’s walk through some must-dos, with a healthy dose of geopolitical reality. See link for: Russia, Europe/NATO/,...

Shortened title. Full title: Secret Emails From Hillary Clinton Reveal: There Is A Very Powerful Circle Of People Ruling Over Hillary Who Hate Christians And Who Are Now Executing A Plan To Annihilate Christians And Advance Islam Reading through Hillary and her ‘gang’ leaked emails, gives us a picture as to how America’s foreign policy was run, a policy that nearly wiped out Christians from the Middle East. Looking through Hillary’s email shows a gang bent on destroying the Middle East. It was as if a college Muslim Student Association (which Huma Abedin was member) took over the realm of power, not just...

Shocking reports reveal Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS and Boko Haram fighters in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa beheading, kidnapping, enslaving and displacing millions of Christians, Kurds and other minorities. Evidence is mounting that the treaty negotiated with Iran will not prevent their development of nuclear weapons, which they have threatened to use against Israel. Has the world faced similar crises in the past? If so, how did American Presidents respond?

Donald Trump's strategic approach to confronting Russia under President Vladimir Putin is more complex and nuanced than the Republican nominee's campaign trail rhetoric often indicates, his new senior adviser, former CIA Director James Woolsey, said Tuesday. "I think what Mr. Trump does is much more important than what he says," Woolsey said. "You don't succeed at something like this based just on language. Language is a tool. I don't think it is an absolute."

No American president has ever done more damage to American national security or America’s standing in the world than Barack Obama. We’ve never had a president quite like him before. I think the damage is attributable to his rabid belief in the myths of the left-wing critique of the United States. We will be living with the damage he has done for a long time to come (if we are lucky, I guess). Let us count (a few) of the ways. We have the great kick-me moment of the 2009 Cairo speech and its false history (an Obama trademark). We...

The Polish foreign minister has said that Germany all too often follows its own interests at the expense of its partners, as Chancellor Angela Merkel prepares to visit Warsaw. […] Merkel is set to arrive in Warsaw on Friday for talks with Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, as well as the heads of state of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. The quartet have had increasingly tense relations with Berlin since Germany took in hundreds of thousands of migrants last year and started pushing for an EU-wide quota system, whereby refugees would be redistributed across the union. But foremost on Waszczykowski’s...

Quote from a WWII veteran overhearing someone say that `You can't > bomb an ideology.": > > "The hell you can't. Because we did it. These Muslims are no > different than the [Imperial] Japanese. They had their suicide > bombers > too. And we stopped them. What it takes is the resolve and will to > use > a level of brutality and violence that your generations can't > stomach. > And until you can, this shit won't stop. It took us on the beaches > with bullets, clearing out caves with flame throwers, and men like > LeMay...

Monday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich offered a glowing review of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s speech in Youngstown, OH earlier in the day on how he would handle the threat of ISIS. According to Gingrich, it was the most important foreign policy speech dating back to President Ronald Reagan.

A number of foreign policy experts came out against Trump. Any American who has travelled to a foreign country knows something about foreign policy. Ordinary Americans are popular and well liked around the world. It does not matter whether they travel as tourists, exchange students, missionaries, residents of military bases, aid workers, etc. Ordinary Americans have a very good reputation in foreign countries. But American foreign policy is hated. This is because foreign-policy experts engage in foreign social engineering, trying to change foreign cultures and overthrow foreign governments. Americans hate domestic social engineering, when it is carried out in America....

French journalist Nabila Ramdani contributes to a panel discussion on the murder of 86 yer-old priest Jacques Hamel in Normandy, France; the Clinton-Trump presidential contest in America; and the cheating controversy surrounding the forthcoming Rio Olympics.

If there has been any constant in the Republican worldview over decades, it's that American strength, resolve and credibility are essential in foreign affairs, and weakness and uncertainty lead straight to disaster. The GOP legions regard Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as failures because they have been insufficiently willing to challenge our adversaries and stand with our friends. "Our allies don't trust us, and our enemies don't fear us" is a claim made by one Republican after another. But the Cleveland convention was a study in dissonance between the bedrock convictions of just about every loyal Republican and the opinions...

Congressional Democrats anxious to force a withdrawal of American forces from Iraq are frustrated by their inability to muster a veto-proof majority for legislation that would establish a firm date for retreat. But what they cannot do directly they are now working hard to do indirectly. According to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Incirlik Air Base near Adana, Turkey is the transshipment point for about 70% of all air cargo (including 33% of the fuel) going to supply US forces in Iraq. Included are about 95% of the new “MRAP” -- mine-resistant, ambush-protected -- vehicles designed to save the lives of...

Look what's happening now without it When I ran for president, I summed up my thinking on foreign policy with the term “peace through strength with clarity.” To help demonstrate what this meant, we created a map that clearly labeled certain nations. Britain was a friend. Russia was a rival. Various nations in the Middle East represented threats. As you might expect, the political media mocked this as simple-minded, which I still believe is hilariously ironic coming from some of the most simple-minded people you will ever have the misfortune of meeting. But what’s happening now helps to demonstrate why...

Other GOP elected officials may be avoiding the Republican National Convention later this month, but Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst sees an opening night speech as an opportunity “to give Iowans a voice on the national stage.” “Right now, Iowans are pretty darned frustrated — just like when I ran for election,” said Ernst, whose 2014 campaign caught fire with a “Make ’em Squeal” promise to cut federal spending. National security is to be her focus when she addresses the Cleveland convention on Monday, July 18. “There’s a real pushback against the failed policies we have right now,” Ernst said Tuesday....

On Friday, NBCÂ’s Today skipped any mention of CIA Director John Brennan detailing Obama administration failures in the fight against ISIS while testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee. The morning show ignored the major story despite ThursdayÂ’s NBC Nightly News devoting a nearly two-minute segment to the topic. On Nightly News, anchor Lester Holt declared: Â“Now to a stark warning here at home from the director of the CIA over the threat from ISIS. John Brennan told Congress today efforts to defeat ISIS on the battlefield have not put a dent in the group's ability to carry out terror attacks....

Donald Trump is making abundantly clear in the wake of the Orlando terror attack that there will be no general election pivot by his campaign. The presumptive Republican nominee ignored political convention in the primary. He used sharp rhetoric, offered provocative solutions and occasionally peddled old conspiracy theories to bolster his positions and overwhelm competitors. Trump's response to the jihadist strike on a gay nightclub in central Florida that left 49 victims dead and scores wounded was no different. The New York businessman congratulated himself for predicting the carnage, suggested that President Obama might have somehow been involved and reaffirmed...

In his second speech on Sunday morning's terrorist massacre in Orlando, Florida, President Barack Obama said Â on Monday that "the shooter was inspired by various extremist information that was disseminated over the Internet," that "we see no clear evidence that he was directed externally," and that "this is certainly an example of the kind of homegrown extremism that all of us have been so concerned about for a very long time." The press, led as usual by the Associated Press, is certainly cooperating with those characterizations. Presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has clearly made up her mind that...

Already, Clinton has claimed international affairs as a key battleground against Trump, devoting her first major address of the general-election campaign to the topic. And she’s done so for understandable reasons. Foreign affairs is arguably the realm in which she can draw the sharpest contrast with Trump in terms of qualifications. In her national-security speech last week, Clinton noted that she visited 112 countries as secretary of state. Foreign affairs is also where the stakes of the election seem highest; in her speech, Clinton conjured images of a volatile Trump in the Situation Room, blustering through matters of war and...

Last week, Hillary Clinton lambasted Donald Trump in a blistering and “much anticipated foreign policy speech,” according to the media, declaring that the presumptive GOP nominee is “temperamentally unfit” to lead the world’s most powerful nation. She also contrasted her own temperament, experience, and judgment favorably with that of the bombastic billionaire. The speech, given at San Diego’s Balboa Park, in advance of the California primary election, has been viewed as a primer on the way the presumptive Democratic nominee will attack Trump in the general election campaign. Regardless of this contention, Clinton offered no specific policy recommendations, nor did...

Whenever you put forward an idea that enrages both the left and the right, you can feel pretty certain you've come close to the truth. A while back - I can no longer locate the post - I advanced the notion that Barack Obama is a hapless schmuck. The theory was greeted with derision from both sides. Leftists, of course, were furious because it's clear to them that even their president's failures are a product of his genius. He's just too smart for the rest of us to comprehend what it is he's doing. Rightists were upset because I had...

Hillary Clinton's recent foreign policy speech was an attack on Donald Trump but was also a reminder that Clinton is a deeply flawed and worrisome candidate. Her record as Secretary of State was one of the worst in modern US history; her policies have enmeshed America in new Middle East wars, rising terrorism, and even a new Cold War with Russia. Of the three leading candidates, only Bernie Sanders has the sound judgment to avoid further war and to cooperate with the rest of the world. Clinton is intoxicated with American power. [Snip] Clinton lacks all self-awareness of how poorly...

"Clinton to Paint Trump as a Risk to World Order." Thus did page one of Thursday's New York Times tee up Hillary Clinton's big San Diego speech on foreign policy. Inside the Times, the headline was edited to underline the point: "Clinton to Portray Trump as Risk to the World." The Times promoted the speech as "scorching," a "sweeping and fearsome portrayal of Mr. Trump, one that the Clinton campaign will deliver like a drumbeat to voters in the coming months." What is happening here? As Donald Trump is splitting off blue-collar Democrats on issues like America's broken borders and...

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Thursday gave a speech in San Diego in which she reiterated her support for Israel. “Israel’s security is non-negotiable. They are our closest ally in the region and we have a moral obligation to defend them,” she said. In the speech, the former Secretary of State also blasted her Republican rival Donald Trump and especially his foreign policy platform, which she described as "dangerously incoherent". "Donald Trump's ideas are not just different, they are dangerously incoherent," she said, according to Reuters. "They're not even really ideas, just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds...

Hillary Clinton, in what was billed as a major foreign policy speech Thursday afternoon, used it instead to launch a broadside against Donald Trump - as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee provided a running commentary throughout, repeatedly firing back on Twitter during her address. [Snip] "Donald Trump's ideas are not just different, they're dangerously incoherent," Clinton said. "They’re not even ideas, just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies." Trump was unimpressed by the address, tweeting as Clinton was speaking that she looked unpresidential and was bad at reading from a teleprompter. Bad performance by Crooked Hillary...

Kevin Knodell writes at The Week that in response to the rising Chinese influence in the South China Sea and a troubled relationship with Chinese-allied Pakistan, the United States is building new ties with India. He notes that the US has surpassed Russia as IndiaÂ’s largest military supplier, that Indian special forces recently participated in joint exercises at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and that Secretary of Defense Ash Carter recently Â“discussed the possibility of sharing technology to help New Delhi build its first domestically produced aircraft carrier INS Vishalâ€Š.Â”

When it comes to the impact of global trade, the dismal science has done a dismal job explaining how to help workers hurt by globalization. As a recovering economist writing on behalf of my erstwhile field, I would like to apologize to every American who has lost a job or a livelihood because of globalization. Economics has failed you. It has failed you because of ideology, politics, and laziness. It has failed you because its teachings are woefully incomplete, and its greatest exponents have done almost nothing to complete them. There are “positive” questions in economics that have mathematical answers...

Donald Trump met Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state and long-time foreign policy guru on Wednesday. Mr Kissinger is the latest in a string of policy experts sought out by Mr Trump as he looks to reassure the Republican establishment that he is not, as Hillary Clinton has described him, a "loose cannon". Mr Trump's "America First" foreign policy aligns in part with Mr Kissinger's realist approach, with both men emphasising US self-interest in dealings with other countries.

I am friendly with Donald Trump’s son-in-law and daughter, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. They are both extremely fine people. Jared is a leading advisor to his father-in-law on Israel and is rock-solid on all matters pertaining to the Jewish state. He stems from a famously philanthropically Jewish family who are devoted in every way to the interests of the Jewish community. I am in accordance with Mr. Trump on his strong position on issues of national security, fighting ISIS and terrorism, and tearing up the disastrous Iran nuclear deal which has already been breached by the Iranian government, making...

The internet was abuzz following a story by David Samuels on the jerk who admitted he manipulated the truth to get the president’s absurd deal with Iran accepted (accepted, that is, by the Democrats in Congress who blocked a Republican resolution to reject it). In case you missed it I’ll provide a quick summary of the salient parts, but that shouldn’t be the end of the story: the press having allowed itself to be flimflammed into being mere White House megaphones needs to redeem itself, should it care to win back even the tiniest shred of credibility. It probably won’t,...

<p>The profile of one Ben Rhodes running in SundayÂ’s New York Times Magazine is not unsympathetic, which makes it all the more devastating.</p>
<p>But, as that quote indicates, he comes off like an overweening little schmuck. This quotation seems to capture his worldview: â€śHe referred to the American foreign policy establishment as the Blob."</p>

How Ben Rhodes rewrote the rules of diplomacy for the digital age. Picture him as a young man, standing on the waterfront in North Williamsburg, at a polling site, on Sept. 11, 2001, which was Election Day in New York City. He saw the planes hit the towers, an unforgettable moment of sheer disbelief followed by panic and shock and lasting horror, a scene that eerily reminded him, in the aftermath, of the cover of the Don DeLillo novel “Underworld.”

Even as they castigate Mr. Obama, the neocons may be preparing a more brazen feat: aligning themselves with Hillary Rodham Clinton and her nascent presidential campaign, in a bid to return to the driver’s seat of American foreign policy.

Panel discussion on the week's headlines, including... Donald Trump on Tuesday swept five states and is running away with the nomination, and followed up with a major speech on foreign policy. With approximately 1,000 delegates, he is positioned to reach the 1,237 mark before the convention in Cleveland. Meanwhile, his closest competitor Ted Cruz picked his VP candidates in Carly Fiorina. In Europe, Italian authorities arrested four would-be terrorists affiliated with ISIS, and Brussels began distributing iodine tablets (to counteract the effects of a potential dirty bomb). Finally, with the official transition of the term “convicted criminal” to “justice-involved individual,”...

Donald J. Trump Foreign Policy Speech Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you, and thank you to the Center for the National Interest for honoring me with this invitation. I would like to talk today about how to develop a new foreign policy direction for our country – one that replaces randomness with purpose, ideology with strategy, and chaos with peace. It is time to shake the rust off of America’s foreign policy. It's time to invite new voices and new visions into the fold. The direction I will outline today will also return us to a timeless...

Donald Trump's first major foreign policy address alarmed American allies, who view the Republican front runner's repeated invocation of an "America first" agenda as a threat to retreat from the world. While most governments were careful not to comment publicly on a speech by a U.S. presidential candidate, Germany's foreign minister veered from that protocol to express concern at Trump's wording. "I can only hope that the election campaign in the USA does not lack the perception of reality," Frank-Walter Steinmeier said. "The world's security architecture has changed and it is no longer based on two pillars alone. It cannot...

Republican front-runner gives a big foreign policy speech full of criticism of Obama But it’s also full of contradictions and dangerous strains of isolationism Trump questions international alliances that have kept America safe

Donald Trump is two for two with teleprompter-ed speeches. That is, he is batting 1000 with remarks that are carefully prepared and delivered. So for his sake, he should keep it up. And if he does, he can win the Republican nomination in July and the general election in November—by carrying 40 states. Trump’s speech today to the Center for the National Interest (CFTNI), an old-line “realist” think tank in DC, was well received. CFTNI was once known as the Nixon Center, as in, the 37th president, and it still includes on its board such legendary Nixon foreign-policy hands as...

The Donald Trump effect: Ford will invest $1.6 billion in two U.S. factories. Ford Motor Co will invest $1.6 billion in two U.S. factories to start making a new automatic transmission and expand output of certain commercial trucks, the company said on Tuesday. Ford said the moves would support a total of 650 jobs but would not say how many new ones would be created. The announcement comes three weeks after Ford said it would spend $1.6 billion to build a new vehicle assembly plant in Mexico, drawing fire from Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump. Ford has countered that...

DONALD J. TRUMP FOREIGN POLICY SPEECH Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you, and thank you to the Center for the National Interest for honoring me with this invitation. I would like to talk today about how to develop a new foreign policy direction for our country – one that replaces randomness with purpose, ideology with strategy, and chaos with peace. It is time to shake the rust off of America’s foreign policy. It's time to invite new voices and new visions into the fold. The direction I will outline today will also return us to a timeless...

Joe Scarborough was careful to state for the record that he was "not voting for Hillary Clinton." But everything else he said during a segment on today's Morning Joe was one long love letter to her foreign policy and leadership skills. Granted, Joe set the bar very low, comparing Hillary's prospective leadership to President Obama's fecklessness. Even so, it was striking to hear Scarborough proclaim "Hillary Clinton does not believe in leading from behind. Hillary Clinton does not believe that you sit back and let the events of the world shape the country. Hillary Clinton does not believe in the...

Donald Trump told thousands of voters in Harrisburg, Pa., Thursday night he isn't quite ready to be "presidential," but said he'd get there next week in time for a major foreign policy speech in the nation's capital. Trump will discuss the U.S. economy as it relates to national security during a speech next Wednesday at the National Press Club, according to the Wall Street Journal. The billionaire is also considering hiring a speechwriter to assist him with several major speeches his campaign has planned in the coming months. Much like the rest of Trump's newest hires, the speechwriter will reportedly...

Weeks after President Barack Obama’s historic trip to Cuba, officials from the Communist island have ramped up their attacks on the U.S. On Monday, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called Obama's visit "an attack on the foundation of our history, our culture and our symbols." "Obama came here to dazzle the non-state sector, as if he wasn't the representative of big corporations but the defender of hot dog vendors, of small businesses in the United States, which he isn't," Rodriguez said. The foreign minister’s response came days after Cuba President Raul Castro said that the United States is "the enemy" and...

Video at link. A Russian fighter jet flew dangerously close to a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft on Thursday in the latest military provocation by Moscow over the Baltic Sea, the U.S. European Command said Saturday. The U.S. aircraft, a militarized Boeing 707 jet, was operating in international airspace and at no time crossed into Russian territory, said the Navy, as reported first by The Washington Free Beacon. “On April 14, a U.S. Air Force RC-135 aircraft flying a routine route in international airspace over the Baltic Sea was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 in an unsafe and unprofessional manner,” Navy Capt....

The New York Sun announced it is endorsing Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)97% in the Republican primary Tuesday. According to the Sun: It hasn’t been our normal practice to endorse in the primaries, but this year the vote, set for Tuesday, will take on outsized importance as we career toward a contested convention. The junior senator from Texas has emerged from a crowded field by dint of his fidelity to principles — limited, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a strong foreign policy — that couldn’t be at higher premium. They are the true New York Values. Regardless of the...

onald Trump has spent much of his campaign deriding NATO allies for “ripping off” the American taxpayer and failing to contribute to the world’s most powerful military alliance. But on Wednesday, his fellow Republicans joined the chorus during a closed-door meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Capitol Hill, according to sources inside the room. For under an hour, senators grilled Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway, about why only five members of the 28-nation club spend at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense, the official amount NATO recommends each nation set aside. Some...

At an April 2013 campaign rally, presidential candidate Hassan Rouhani was asked about the house arrests of the 2009 Green Movement leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard and Mehdi Karroubi. At the time, the Green Movement leaders had been imprisoned for over two years without trial for calling for protests against the contested 2009 presidential elections, which kept the hard-line Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power. Rouhani responded to the question by saying, “This condition is not to our benefit. This split, which day by day is becoming deeper, must be eliminated.” He added, “I am hopeful that the elections will decrease...